I read a lot more #fridayflash than I comment on.
There are many reasons for this, but one is time. For some reason I find writing a quick comment harder than sitting down to write the same number of words in fiction or blog. I find myself staring at the comment box trying to word my thoughts correctly, I often want to compliment and criticise (constructively) at the same time, and sometimes I do, but then I worry about offending people.
To be fair, my comments are usually taken as helpful, as intended. Which is a great relief. The #fridayflash community is a great thing to be a part of and I would really hate to offend anyone or come across as anything other than glad to be here and trying to help where I can, equally looking to learn where I can.
If you're on my blogroll, I read you. If you tag yourself in the #fridayflash report as science fiction or fantasy or magic realism, I read you, and more besides, time allowing. I just don't always manage a comment.
Just thinking aloud... ;)
The A to Z will continue, but slower now the pressure of the deadline is off, which is probably kind of missing the point... ;) J is a hard letter too. I have one in mind, but I want a better one... ;D
A good post, John. I know exactly what you're talking about. After a year and a half with the #Fridayflash group you tend to follow a lot of writers. It's difficult to visit everybody every week so you have to be selective and, as you say, you don't always have time to comment everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI find that after a while you get to know what's acceptable constructive criticism at a person's blog. Some people email comments like that to avoid embarassment in a public forum. Eventually, we figure out what works.
Thanks for articulating this practice; it's exactly what I'm dealing with. Add to it my tendency to be an RSS hoarder; I skim the tweet streams and several hashtags as well as a couple of 'collector' pages and habitually add people to Twitter, and their blogs to my feed reader.
ReplyDeleteDo I ever even read them all? Nope. Do I sincerely want to? Yep. I do look to others that I notice are frequent commenters as inspiration; I think the practice of commenting is an overlooked value in the whole process of reading/writing/community.
I try to keep in mind the charge I get when someone comments on my posts, and assume that I'm giving that kind of charge back to someone when I comment on theirs; it helps. Still, I have a long way to go.
Thanks, guys. =) It's good to know I'm not alone with this. I guess we all look forward to the ideal day when we can have a leisurely start of reading and commenting before we get down to the day's writing, you know, when we're all professional, published writers and don't have to worry about rushing in to our 'real' jobs... ;D
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one. I know my comments often are short. But, I find even the short ones can take longer to write than it did to read the story.
ReplyDeleteThey sometimes can!
ReplyDeleteI'm amused, when I get an email from this post it says:
'New comment on Comments on Comments.' =D
(it doesn't take much to amuse me... ;) )